Combined velocipede, cart, and tractor-trailer



April 10, 1934. H. F. KRUG 1,954,179

COMBINED VELOCIPEDE, CART, AND TRACTOR TRAILER Filed Nov. 25. 1932 INVENTOR ATTORNEYQ Patented Apr. 10, 1934 COMBINED VELOCIPEDE, CART, AND

. TRACTOR-TRAILER Harold F. Krug, Grosse Pointe Park, Mich. Al plication November 25, 1932, Serial No. 644,185

2 Claims. (Cl. 208-45 The present invention pertains to a novel combination of toy parts which may be variously assembled to constitute either a velocipede, a cart or a tractor-trailer. The principal object of the invention is to provide such a combination of parts which are simple andinexpensive in con- 1 four wheels, including the formerly rear struction and which may readily and easily be taken apart and reassembled for the purposes set forth.

The device may be conceived as a velocipede or tricycle separable at a point immediately behind the seat into two parts. One of these parts embodies the main frame with the front wheel, handle-bars and seat, and the other part is the inclined strut carried by the rear axle with the two rear wheels.

The third and remaining part is a cart or trailer comprising a body having a rear axle and rear wheels and at its front end a bracket adapted to be detachably secured to the aforementioned rear axle of the tricycle. The trailer member attached to the tricycle in this manner constitutes a tractor-trailer wherein the propulsion mechanism of the tricycle is the tractor, and the cart is the trailer.

On separating the parts at the joint behind the seat of the tricycle, the cart wheels of the tricycle which now become the front wheels of the cart. The member previously described. as the inclined strut of the tricycle leading to the rear wheels becomes the draft tongue of the cart.

The invention is fully disclosed by way of example in the following description and in the accompanying drawing, in which- Figure 1 is a. plan view of the complete axle as a tractor-trailer;

Fig. 2 is a side tlon',

Fig. 3 is a side elevation of the cart assembly;

Fig. 4 is a detail plan view of the handle thereelevation thereof, partly in sec- Fig. 6 is a detail plan view, partly in section,

of the rear axle thereof;

Fig. 'l is a section on the line 7--'Z of Figure 2;

and

Fig. 8 is a detail section, partly in elevation, ap-

proximately on the line 8--8 of Figure 1.

Fig.5 is aside elevation of the tricycle assent- Reference to these views will now be made by use of like characters which are employed to designate corresponding parts throughout.

1, 2 and 5 is illustrated the main In Figures suspended body rests on 2 wherein the cart frame 1 of a tricycle having at. its forward end a vertical head or bearing 2 in which is journalled a fork 3 in the usual manner. The fork extends downwardly and has a single wheel 4 joumalled between the bifurcations thereof. In the rear part of the frame 1 is mounted a seat 5. To the center of the wheel are secured pedals 6 at opposite sides thereof and within reach of a person occupying the seat 5. The upper end of the fork above the head2 carries handle-bars '1 also within reach of the occupant of the seat 5. The structure thus far described is more or less common to tricycles, except for the rear wheel structure which will now be described.

The rear wheel assembly for the tricycle is shown more clearly in Figures 5 and 6 and includes an axle 8 with wheels 9 ioumalled on the ends thereof. A substantially triangular tongue or. strut 10 iournalled on the axle 8 as indicated by the numeral 11, and its vertex is formed with a vertically extending stem 12 which appears in Figures 1, 2 and 5. The rear end of the frame 1 is formed with a socket 13 receiving the stem 12, and these parts are secured together by a bolt 14 passed therethrough and having a nut 15 on 30 its threaded end as shown more clearly in Figure '7. The assembly shown in Figures 5 and 6 forms a three-wheeled velocipede with its rear end portion separable at the socket 13.

A clamping plate 16 is mounted horizontally 35 upon the axle 8 and is held thereto by a pin 17 as shown in Figure 8. There is also provided a trailer cart comprising a. body 18 with a single depending bracket 19 at its forward end and a pair of transversely aligned brackets 20 at its rear end. The latter support a rear axle 21 carrying a pair of wheels 22 at its ends, and the bracket 19 is adapted to rest upon the plate 16 and over the pin 1'7 as shown in Figure 8. A wing-nut 23 screwed on the upper free end of 5 the pin 1'1 secures the cart to the axle 8. In this condition, the device appears as in Figures 1 and is in the form of aforailer attached to the rear axle of the tricycle as a tractor.

A toy wagon or cart may be obtained by separating the forward tractor unit at the bolt 14, whereupon the member 10 oecomes the draft tongue of the wagon as snown in Figure 3. A handle 24 is pivotally attached to the forward or upper end of the member 10 for more easily dragging the cart. However, when the member 10 is secured to the frame 1 in the tricycle of Figure 5 or in the tractor-trailer combination, no

Figure 2, the handle 24 merely hangs illustrated. I

It will now be evident that the combination of parts shown and described herein may be assembled for three different toy devices, namely a tricycle as in Figure 5, a tractor-trailer combination as in Figures 1 and 2, and a hand-drawn cart as in Figure 3. The draft tongue 10 is common to all three assemblies, while the axle 8 serves in one case as the rear axle of the tricycle and in another case as the front axle of the cart.

Although a specific embodiment of the invention has been illustrated and described it will be understood that various alternations in the details of construction may be made without departing from the scope of the invention, as indicated by the appended claims.

What I claim is:-

1. A combined four-wheeled wagon and tri= cycle, said wagon comprising a box and two axles, said tricycle comprising a dirigible wheel rotatably iournailed in a two part frame, one of the parts of said frame being permamently connected loosely as weave to one of said axles, detachable means for com nesting said mentioned axle to said box, means permamently connecting the other axle to said box, and meam for detachably connecting the two parts of said tricycle frame whereby said frame part which is connected to said axle may be disconnected from the other part to serve as a tongue for said wagon.

2. In combination, a tricycle frame having a seat thereon, a dirigible wheel with pedals there- JD, an axle having wheels rotatably journalled on the ends thereof, a triangularly shaped member pivotally connected to said axle, detachable means for rigidly connecting the end of said tri mgularly shaped member to said frame, means for removably connecting a wagon box to said axle, said wagon box being adapted to be removed to permit use of the device as a tricycle, and said triangular member being adapted to be removed from said frame to serve as a tongue on said axle when said wagon box is attached thereto.

HAROLD F. MUG. 

